1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing, and more particularly, to accessing data through a logical framework.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information Technology (IT) encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms, including those not yet conceived). While information technology provides significant benefits to users, the providers of such technology often incur substantial costs. As such, it is common for providers to charge a fee for services rendered. For example, many service providers manage information databases and allow fee-based access to the databases. Such databases are particularly prevalent in various professions (e.g., medical, legal, etc.) as well as in research and development. However, such service providers in the information technology industry are providing users with access to databases using relatively inflexible and restrictive fee models.
Consider a service provider who owns and manages a repository of information which they provide fee-based access to. It may be a database of medical research information or any other kind of data that is of value within a particular domain. There are a number of methods established today which govern the fee structure for these kinds of environments. In some cases, the service provider may charge an annual fee for the right to access information in the repository. In other cases, the service provider may charge a per transaction fee for information retrieved. These models are adequate if all data in the repository is considered of equal value, but do not address issues where the value of information can vary between various entities in the repository.
Consider further service providers that are in the data hosting business, i.e., those who provide data storage and management services for a fee. One model that is used today involves a fee structure based on the volume of data stored. In this case, all types of data are considered equal; all types of data are viewed as simply a set of bytes being stored. This model works adequately if there is no distinction between how different types of data are managed, but is not a good solution if there are different types of services provided for different types of information. For example, assume a service provider who is storing patient demographic, account, test result and medical diagnosis information for a given client. There may be different levels of service associated with each type of information. The service provider may provide services to secure patient authorization to use data for research that would apply to individual patients stored in the repository. The service provider may need to provide more stringent access control and data encryption support for certain types of data. There may also be a set of data analysis services provided for some types of information. Existing fee models do not account for these variations on the type of data stored and services associated with that data.
Therefore, what is needed is a more flexible fee based model for accessing data.